Replenishing soil in container gardens

[NJCher]

I once read a thread at gardenweb.com where a gardener claimed that she replaced the soil in every one of her containers in the spring. That's too much work for me. I think there are better ways, in addition to adding compost in the spring. Here's what I did this year:

After pulling the plant out, I dug soil out of the container and put it in a bucket. I added unfinished compost from my bin, which was already loaded with red wigglers (Eisenia Fetida). The purpose of this is to get the red wigglers to add vermicompost to the soil of the container.

Next I added chopped leaves--enough to give a nice, fluffy texture to the soil. These leaves will decompose over the winter and give my container soil more moisture retention ability in the spring. I also mixed in pulverized egg shells (used my food processor and water for this) because the red wigglers love it.

I put the soil I'd dug out (paragraph 2) back in the container and mixed it around with the unfinished compost and the leaves.

I bought several bags of dried peas and soaked them in plastic containers with lids. After leveling off the top of the soil in the container, I sprinkled the top of the container with the peas. They will sprout and act as green manure over the winter/spring. Note: in the spring the green vines have to be chopped up and added back into the container's soil.

After covering the top of the container with the peas, I cover the entire container surface with tac straw (no weed seed plus it has an agent that keeps it "tacked" to the soil--usually guar gum).



By spring of next year, I should have rejuvenated container soil.

Cher